According to Wine Intelligence’s China Portraits 2015 report, a brand new wine consumer segment has emerged since its last study in 2012: Developing Drinkers, typically younger and less involved consumers who tend to buy wine at mainstream or entry-level prices.

These people are more likely to be graduates, working in high-earning professions and in their late 20s or early 30s, who have picked up the wine-drinking habit at business dinners, but are now drinking wine in their social lives too.

‘Over the past three years, the Chinese market for imported wine has begun a fundamental transformation,’ said Wine Intelligence COO Richard Halstead.

‘We are moving from the era where prestige wine was only bought as a face-enhancing gift towards a world where consumers care more about how it tastes – because they will be drinking it themselves – and how much it costs, because they are more likely to be paying for it themselves as well.’

The study of just over 2,000 urban upper middle class imported wine drinkers suggested that Developing Drinkers account for about 19% of the country’s imported wine drinking population.

All rights reserved by TI Media Ltd. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Decanter.

Only Official Media Partners (see About us) of DecanterChina.com may republish part of the content from the site without prior permission under strict Terms & Conditions. Contact china@decanter.com to learn about how to become an Official Media Partner of DecanterChina.com.

Share this article

Comments

Related articles

Today Faustino operates 650ha of prime Rioja Alavesa vineyards, with over 100 countries around the globe enjoying the fruits of its labour and, with Faustino I, can lay claim to making the world’s biggest selling Rioja Gran Reserva.

Founded in the 1960s, Champagne Jacquart is something of a young buck (you’ll be lucky to find tales of winemaking craft being handed down from generation to generation here), but arguably its relative adolescence is also its core strength.